Power to run the sensors active heating cooling and telemetry.
Building space based solar panels factory.
Power for spacecraft propulsion electric propulsion sometimes called solar electric propulsion.
The concept of space based solar power is not new.
China is planning to build the world s first solar power station in space to provide inexhaustible clean energy according to a story in science and technology daily the official newspaper of.
In fact this technology was mentioned way back in 1941 in the science fiction story reason written by isaac asimov.
Meanwhile the united states has been sitting on space based solar power technology since 1968 when nasa advisor and apollo 11 project manager peter glaser published his concept of a solar power.
Solar panels on spacecraft supply power for two main uses.
In the 1970s nasa and the u s.
The renewable energy concept has been around for decades and as the space race with.
For both uses a key figure of merit of the solar panels is the specific power watts generated divided by solar array mass which indicates on a relative basis how much.
Department of energy carried out serious studies on space based solar power and over the decades since various types of solar power satellites spss have been.